Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 937

“How ISIS recruits children, then kills them”

    There’s a new depth of evil here.  It’s almost without precedent:   http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/19/middlee...    

“5 reasons why anecdotes are totally worthless”

    I would want to nuance this a bit, and I think the argument is much more applicable to scientific and medical matters than elsewhere, but it needs to be heard rather widely:   5 reasons why anecdotes are totally worthless    

“The Science of Waiting in Modern Courtship”

    Obviously, not everything here fits altogether well with a Latter-day Saint approach to the matter.  But it’s interesting and funny.  (I think so, anyway.)   http://nautil.us/issue/33/attraction/...    

“Youth help at Haitian church”

    I love this story, both because it’s about service and because it involves service to people of another faith — service of a kind that some would never expect to come from Latter-day Saints, with our exclusive truth claims and our belief in a universal Christian apostasy:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/86...    

Trump contra mundum

    Mr. Donald Trump has repeatedly ridiculed Jeb Bush, hit Dr. Ben Carson for his religious faith, mocked former POW John McCain as a “loser” for having been shot down over North Vietnam, sneered at a disabled disabled man, branded Mexicans as rapists and murderers, called Ted Cruz a “liar” and threatened to sue [Read More...]

BOM 2 Nephi 30

    The Bible and the Book of Mormon both clearly teach that the Lord works through particular lineages, chosen peoples, selected families.   However, today’s reading, 2 Nephi 30, makes it clear that these aren’t exclusive clubs.  Those chosen people aren’t necessarily more righteous than others, and righteous outsiders can, through their faithfulness, be effectively [Read More...]

Looking back at the first volume of “Interpreter”

    The Interpreter Foundation was conceived in late July 2012.  Nine days later, Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture published its first article.   A great deal has been accomplished since then.  But Interpreter’s first volume still contains interesting and worthwhile material, well worth a look back:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/jour...    

“Remembering the history of the LDS Church on the Hawaiian Islands”

    My latest column in the Deseret News:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/86...    

Seven quotations from the very quotable Mark Twain

      Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.   Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.   If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.   Clothes make the man. [Read More...]

On obnoxious reader comments

    http://www.theguardian.com/commentisf...   This is a major problem for newspapers and magazines and etc. around the world.  Toxic commenters dominate, while civil and substantive people avoid the comments sections because they can’t stand the low level of discourse.  It’s a major reason for the creation of The World Table:   https://www.worldtable.co   Although I [Read More...]